Immigration status not issue here

The justice system might be flawed and might be manipulated at times, but its capacity to entertain fairness cannot be denied.

I had a front-row seat to this Tuesday in Judge Janet Kenton-Walker’s courtroom at the Worcester Superior Court, where arguments were heard to establish the competence of Nicholas Guaman to stand trial on a second-degree murder charge.

Mr. Guaman, 35, was charged with running over 23-year-old Matthew Denice with his truck in August 2011 and dragging the Milford resident, who was riding a motorcycle at the time, under his truck for several blocks.

Tragically, this is really another one of those all-too-frequent cases in which a drunk driver used his vehicle to cause the death of another person.

But because Mr. Guaman is an illegal immigrant, the case became a cause célèbre for those who believe he represents the worst of their fears about the roughly 11 million illegals in this country.

In the court of public opinion, these individuals would argue that this particular tragedy would not have happened if Mr. Guaman, an Ecuador native, was not able to come and to live here illegally.

Fortunately, the American judicial system is not predicated on such broad-brush reasoning; as such Mr. Guaman’s illegal status will and should have no bearings on whether he is guilty or not guilty of the crimes for which he is charged.

Interestingly enough, however, his journey as an illegal immigrant is being used by the prosecution to establish his competency to stand trial.

Essentially, the prosecution position is that a person who can survive the poverty of his upbringing in Ecuador, fend for his family there, and then navigate his way into the United States to continue taking care of his family here and at home should have no problem handling the U.S. judicial system.

This dispassionate use of Mr. Guaman’s illegal status might be wrenching to some, simply because it seems to overlook a greater truth — the length to which a person will go to survive and to take care of his family.

One of Judge Kenton-Walker’s tasks will be to determine whether Mr. Guaman’s competency to participate in his economic survival is the same competency necessary to participate in the judicial process.

Clearly his defense lawyer, Peter Ettenberg, does not think so.

Mr. Ettenberg provided the court with an expert witness, Paul Spiers, who testified that despite Mr. Guaman’s prowess in taking care of himself and his family, a battery of intelligence tests indicate he is mentally disabled, and coupled with his illiteracy in his own language, would not be able to consult with his counsel in a rational and factual way.

The prosecution’s own expert witness, Hanya Bluestone, who did not perform any standard intelligence tests but has reviewed the testimony of the defense expert and has personally interviewed Mr. Guaman, acknowledged that the defendant has gaps in his knowledge of how the system works.

That weakness, however, is not related to mental illness or mental deficit, she said, but to his cultural background, language and lack of experience with the legal system at the level at which he is being prosecuted.

Given the necessary support, such as an interpreter, he should be able to move through the legal process.

Nevertheless, when asked by Mr. Ettenberg whether Mr. Guaman is competent to stand trial, she was noncommittal in her answer.

Those who think Mr. Guaman’s illegal status should have a bearing on this case will no doubt be upset with the lengths to which the court is going to establish his competency to stand trial.

But what I witnessed yesterday was a process that honors our expectations of a just judicial system.

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